Before starting the Magic Tree House Adventures: Tonight on the Titanic program last Saturday, a parent came up to me and said, "You know this ship is going down, right?"
Last weekend, was the third edition of Magic Tree House Adventures. February theme was Hour of the Olympics and March was Leprechaun in Late Winter. Since our April's session happened to fall on the 100th anniversary of the Titanic's demise and Kansas City's Union Station is currently featuring a Titanic Artifact Exhibit, this month's theme was based off of Jack and Annie's adventure's in the Magic Tree House book, Tonight on the Titanic.
On Saturday, "Jack" and I set sail using the Magic Tree House as our guide...
Where are we? Who are they?
Where are we? Who are they? has become a regular activity for Magic Tree House Adventures. It’s a power point guessing game where we flash an image on a large screen and the kids guess the location of the picture, what is going on in the picture, or who is/are the person/persons in the picture.
For the Titanic session, the primary focus was the timeline of events during the Titanic's voyage, but also included important figures such as Captain Smith, Thomas Andrews, and Robert Ballard, iceberg facts, and what it was like traveling as a 1st, 2nd, and 3rd class passenger.
For example, when this slide was displayed, I'd ask the kids... "Where is this? Is it someone's house?" And their reply was, "No, it's in the Titanic!". Then I would ask is this part of the Titanic the 3rd class travelers occupied? Was it 2nd? Or 3rd? Then we would talk about the different areas of the ship and the people who traveled on the Titanic.
Titanic Timeline Match Up
Posted around the room were clocks with pictures with pictures underneath in chronological order of important events on the Titanic voyage from April 10-April 18, 1912.
The kids received a worksheet where the dates and the events were out of order. To match them correctly, they had to go around the room and find the accurate matches. These were the events used:
April 10, 1912: Noon - Titanic Leaves Southampton, England
April 10: 6:30pm - Titanic stops in Cherboug, France
April 11: 11:30am - Titanic stops in Queenstown, Ireland
April 11-14 - Titanic travels toward New York. Passengers enjoy journey.
April 14: 11:40pm - Titanic strikes iceberg
April 15: 12:25 am - Passengers begin to be loaded into lifeboats
April 15: 2:20am - Titanic sinks
April 15: 4:10am - Carpathia reaches survivors
April 15- April 18 - Carpathia sails toward New York
April 18: 9pm - Survivors arrive in New York
Titanic Rescue Activity
The plan was to do this outside with two teams, but we had severe weather warnings over the weekend and had to make do inside.
The plan outside was to have two Titanic ships (outlined in yarn) about 25 feet, side by side. And two rescue ships 20 yards away parallel the Titanic ships, also side by side. One team will step inside one Titanic boat, and the other team in the other. Using one hula hoop each team, acting as a lifeboat, kids have to figure out how to fit as many passengers into one hula hoop (lifeboat) at a time, walk to the rescue boat, and then one passenger, "the hero" is what we named this person, had to come back in the hula hoop (lifeboat), and fill it up with more passengers, and return to the rescue boat. This would be done as quickly as possible, and over and over, until the Titanic was empty.
A race to see which team can get from the Titanic ship to the rescue ship without “throwing anyone overboard” and in the least amount of time.
Since we played the game inside, we only had one Titanic ship and one rescue ship outlined in tape and the teams took turns.
Titanic Lifeboat Rescue Ship
(If you can make any sense of this diagram, the little circles are the kids.)
The first time the kids only had 1 hula hoop (lifeboat). The second time the kids used two hula hoops (lifeboat).
The activity was meant to show the kids how much quicker their ship emptied with two lifeboats opposed to one, which is why after the Titanic sunk a rule was put into effect that every ship has to have more than enough lifeboats for every passenger aboard. If the Titanic had enough lifeboats, this tragedy might have been avoided.
This was probably the kids' favorite part of the session. In context, a bit morbid, yes. But I feel the point came across loud and clear.
Iceberg Demonstration
The majority of this activity and facts about icebergs came from Beyond Penguins .
The day before, I made mini icebergs by filling water ballons with water, leaving them in the freezer, and then right before the class started, cut and peel away the balloon. With a couple clear glass bowls filled with water, some salt, and a little blue food coloring we had a couple iceberg models.
After the game, I brought out the iceberg models and the kids sat around me and we discussed these questions:
- Why did I put salt in the water? A: we are simulating sea water (35 gms of salt in 1000ml water)
- Why does the ice float? A: It’s less dense- ice is .92, water 1.0
- Where do you find icebergs? A: largest and highest number in Antartica
- Is more ice above or below the surface?
More facts about Icebergs:
A common misconception among students of all ages is that heavy objects sink and light objects float. While this belief may explain many examples, massive icebergs show that the density of an object, not its weight, is the cause of flotation.
Water is one of the few substances that is slightly denser as a liquid than as a solid. This is why ice cubes float in water.
Second, and slightly more interestingly: Most icebergs actually contain a lot of air. Far from being the solid blocks of ice many people imagine, icebergs are riddled with billions of tiny, trapped air bubbles, giving the huge bergs their white appearance.
Third, icebergs are made from fresh water. Because of the dissolved salts in ocean water, it is denser than freshwater, adding bouyancy to the icebergs.
The Titanic Today
With only 8 minutes left, the kids watched a clip of what the Titanic looks like today documented from The History Channel's Titanic's Final Moments: Missing Pieces.
At that point, the hour was up and it was time for the kids to go home!
As always, books were left on the table for them to check out of which they always raid...
... and they were also given their newest companion journal. Below is a sneak peak inside:
My co-worker, "Jack", really does an incredible job putting these journals together.
Had a great group of kids who seemed like they learned a lot and had fun doing it. Win!
Another adventure under the belt.
In May, we are off to the deserts of Egypt...
Magic Tree House #3: Mummies in the Morning
image sources: titanic illustration, titanic staircase, history channel dvd, mummies in the morning
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